TURKS & CAICOS 2024
Just before this whole Covid thing started we had this idea of ‘experiences not things’ as our Xmas gifts for our Niece and Nephew, we took Nathan and Heather to Mazatlan, Mexico for a week as their 2019 Xmas experience, and got home just in time for Covid. In 2022 we took Nathan and Annika to Costa Rica, Heather chose not to join us for that trip.
Here we are in 2024, and we started thinking about what we wanted to do for them this Xmas. It turned out that we had a planned trip to Jamaica, and we thought about which Caribbean destination might be a good location to jump to and meet them there. When we decided on Turks & Caicos, Heather was all over it, and we arranged a 2 week adventure, one week on Grand Turk, and one week on Providenciales. It would require a little airline magic to coordinate it all, but it worked.
Monday
After spending a week in Jamaica at the All-Inclusive Sandals resort, it was time to do a little more self-exploration and non-inclusive vacationing. We would fly from Jamaica to Miami, stay overnight, and then continue back into the Caribbean for Providenciales Island. Sitting beside us on our MIA-PLS flight was a local from Provo, she gave us a bunch of suggestions for things to see and do while we were visiting. There is something special about that water colour as you fly overhead.
On the day Norine and I would fly to Miami for our overnight connection to Providenciales (The most populated Island in Turks & Caicos aka Provo), Heather, Nathan and Annika were boarding a flight in Vancouver that would connect through Toronto, then on to Provo. Both of our flights would land in Turks & Caicos within an hour of each other.
Arriving at the Providenciales International Airport was only the beginning of the T&C journey, ours was the first of four large planes arriving, and customs clearance wasn't bad. Unfortunately their flight was the last of the four flights, and there was a massive lineup to get through security. We had two hours to make our next little flight to Grand Turk, and we were waiting and waiting, and they just were never coming out. I checked with Caicos Express to see when the gate would close for our flight, they had 15 more minutes and the later flights were all full. With 5 minutes to spare they finally cleared customs and rushed over to the Caicos Express counter to check-in. To say it was a small plane was an understatement, there was the 5 of us and one other passenger.
Grand Turk
Grand Turk is a small Tropical Island, less than 10km in length. Since 1766, Grand Turk has been the capital of the Turks and Caicos Islands. Originally founded by Bermudian salt collectors in 1681, the island still retains a colonial heritage through its colonial buildings and old salt salinas. The island is also famous for the 1962 splashdown of the Friendship 7 space capsule, with Astronaut John Glenn aboard, off the coast of Grand Turk. An exact replica is on display outside the JAGS McCartney International Airport. At one point Turks & Caicos almost became a Canadian Territory, but the Mulroney government of the time thought it would be a burden to Canadians.
We landed on Grand Turk and were picked up by the local taxi driver, Jack Daniels, and
taken to our home for the week...
The Reefhouse, just North of Cockburn Town.
I did some online research, review scanning and Facebook travel group chatting to get directly in touch with the owners of this place, and the pictures they provided did not lie.
We made a deal with the group, Norine and I get to choose our room first, then on Grand Turk either Nathan and Annika pick theirs next, or Heather picks hers next. On the next island they would reverse. Heather got to pick here and took the very roomy loft.
We are right on the beach, and the views from our upper deck are amazing! The top deck is all screened in, so you can sit out here all night without any mosquitoes.
There is also a shared lower deck, and this is where we would meet our other house guests... No, not the young family staying downstairs that were from Kitts Beach in Vancouver (small world), but the cat and dog that we adopted for the week, and affectionately named Shelly and Mr. Mew. If you aren't familiar with Potcake dogs, the island is full of them. The potcake dog is a mixed-breed dog type found on Turks & Caicos. It's name comes from a traditional local dish of seasoned rice and peas; overcooked rice that sticks to the bottom of the cooking pot that is commonly mixed with other leftovers and fed to the dogs.I didn't know there was potcake cats too.
We all went for a dinner-time swim in the warm waters of the Atlantic, and were blown away by the reddest sky sunset I have ever seen. Of course we were all swimming and nobody brought a camera. When we came back inside, a pile of groceries had been left at our door, something I had pre-arranged and forgot all about.
Heather was already falling asleep, so the four of us walked into town with the promise of pizza, and ended up at the Turks Head Inne, which was built in 1830, and restored in 2019. We had a delicious dinner, and got a pizza to take back for Heather. Nathan made a mistake and jokingly told the waitress that the first Long Island he ordered wasn't very strong, her response "challenge accepted". We weren't back at our place for 5 minutes when this happened...
Tuesday
Norine and I got up for a morning swim while we waited for the kids to wake up.
When everyone was up we and we had all dried off, we walked down to Barbies restaurant for some lunch and did some shopping.
We visited the Turks & Caicos National museum. The museum was established in 1991 at Guinep House, which is one of the oldest buildings still standing in Grand Turk. The creation of the museum was largely in response to the discovery of the Molasses Reef Wreck to the southeast of West Caicos, which is the oldest excavated European shipwreck in the Americas. After this Portuguese or Spanish caravel was located in the early 1970s, the wreck site was significantly damaged by explosives during an illegal treasure-hunting attempt. Surviving armaments and artifacts from the Molasses Reef Wreck now take center stage at the museum.
We learned a ton about the history of Grand Turk, the salt production, the shipwreck salvaging, and the controversy around installing a lighthouse that might affect that salvaging business.
From the museum we would around the town areas, checking out the shoreline, the back streets, the liquor stores...
You never know what you might find in the sand, a beautiful conch shell, or a bike buried up to it's handlebars.
So many unique old buildings sprinkled throughout the town, and just as many unique old people happy to share a hello and a conversation with us "locals'. Once they find out you are staying on the island and not just a day visitor from a cruise ship, you are treated completely different.
The dominant feature in the center of the island is the Salinas, a shallow lake like area where salt was harvested and shipped around the world. Production peaked at the start of the 1900s, when over 227 acres of salinas were being utilized. Grand Turk was the base of export in the country, and at the height of production, about 140 million pounds of salt were being shipped annually.
What ultimately doomed the salt industry in the country was the small-scale of production. The islands in the Turks and Caicos are small, with a limited number of ponds that could be developed. Necessary infrastructure such as deep water docks simply cost too much to build and maintain compared to the expected returns.By the mid-1900's it was shut down, and the donkeys that were used to transport salt to the ports were released, creating an island full of wild donkeys.
We did some Grocery shopping and walked back just in time for sunset and another swim
A home-made dinner and a night of Crazy 8's and we are all ready for another day in paradise, sleeping to the sound of waves crashing on the shore.
Wednesday
We woke up to another beautiful day on our Beach, the weather reports have been nothing but wrong.
At our place was a deck box with watershoes, snorkeling gear and other beach stuff. Norine and I brought own own snorkeling gear, so we all went to check out the reef off of our little beach.
Nathan - Snorkeling is one of my my favourite memory from Turks and Caicos.
The first time going out while we were staying in Grand Turk was my first time ever
snorkelling. It took a little to get used to breathing through only my mouth but it
became mindless after not too long. At first it was just sand and little pockets of
seaweed. But then it started to get deeper with more pits and holes.
Then they started popping out from under ledges and behind rocks. All of the fish from Finding Nemo that you almost can't believe could be real, are swimming underneath you. The most vibrant colors and the insane camouflage the different fish had. It was all so cool and unforgettable. Then going again on the Conch tour and getting to see a bigger coral bed in deeper waters with much bigger fish was a thing of dreams.
Nathan's mask was leaking, so Norine gave him hers, and pulled out a kayak.
This dead fish washed up on the shore, and for the next 2 days, Shelly smelled like she had been rolling on it.
After a fun day of snorkeling, kayaking and swimming, we were ready to walk into town and hunt for a nice restaurant for dinner.
That's when we met the sweet boy who we named Vaca, he would accompany us all the way to the restaurant, then disappear when he was bullied by some other dogs. We did see him again over the next few days. It's such a nice walk through the narrow streets along the waterfront and the old historic buildings.
One thing we weren't expecting to see was this abandoned building full of unique graffiti art, it was like walking through a museum, very carefully walking.
When we were last on T&C, one of our favourite spots was the Sandbar restaurant, it's still here, but now only serves lunch.
Our planned stop for dinner was the Osprey Hotel, but because it was BBQ night, the reservations were all full. So we made a reservation for Saturday's BBQ night and headed back down the road to the Fisherman’s Wife for dinner.
We had a few drinks, including their local I-Soon Reach beer from Turks Head Brewery, and an amazingly good seafood dinner. The meal came with mosquito repellent, and it was a good thing that it did.
Our stomach's full and our heads a little lighter, we made the long walk back to our place in the dark... protected by local dogs and wild donkeys along the way.
Just a few doors down from our place is a real dive bar... John's Oceanview Bar, always hopping, music blaring, and the same locals hanging out front drinking every single time we go by. We never did stop in, but I'm sure we would have had all kinds of stories to tell if we did.
Thursday
Secretly, I made arrangements to have a golf cart delivered to our place for Thursday morning, so we could explore some of the further reaches of the Island over the coming days. Today's plan was to explore the Northern end of the Island
Our first stop was the Ridge cafe at Arches resort for breakfast, the restaurant is run by a Canadian girl that went to Turks and never came back. The meal was so good, we all decided we would have to come back for Ice Cream there later.
the views from the restaurant were amazing!
Annika - Three days into our adventure on Grand Turk, Dave and Norine
surprised us with a golf cart to help enable our explorations. We headed out for a day
of adventuring around Grand Turk, with our first stop being the famous lighthouse on
the north end of the island. When we arrived, we were greeted by a man handing out
crackers for people to feed to the donkeys. There were a few of them hanging out in
the parking lot that seemed to be quite happy with the arrangement! We took a walk to
the cliffs edge, then stopped to read the plaques that outlined the historical
significance of the lighthouse.
After buying some carrots to gift to the donkeys, we carried on towards the east coastline.
We found some hand painted signs that pointed down a road reading “donkey lane” and “beach”. Say no more! Once the trail became too narrow for the golf cart, we began walking on the donkey trails toward the water. It wasn’t long before we met up with a few donkeys that were friendly enough to let us pet them. That experience of walking down a beautiful little path through the sand and brush, with the Atlantic Ocean only a stones throw away, and then finding the kindest, sweetest wild donkeys, was definitely a highlight of my life. As we continued down to the beach, we began to realize why it was given the name “salvage beach”. It was a sad dose of reality to see all the garbage washed up on shore. However, a beach is still a beach and it was lovely to walk alongside the ocean.
Wild Crocs on the beach
Just when we thought the donkeys couldn't be cuter, this Mama brought her baby across the street to see us
Once we made it back to the donkey trail, we figured it would be a good idea to stop for ice cream before making our way to Pillory beach. We cruised over to the west side of the island, and after making a couple wrong turns, we found the most picturesque path that was too beautiful to drive past. Initially we couldn’t see the water from the road, but after a short walk towards the sound of waves we found Pillory beach.
I spend quite a bit of time daydreaming about beaches, and this one surpassed anything I had conjured up in my brain until then. This one had the most stunning aquamarine water and the brightest white sand I had ever seen. The most unbelievable part? There wasn’t a soul to be seen. We had our own private slice of paradise, other than the 2 pelicans that were kind enough to share their water with us while they fished. We swam in the ocean and walked around looking at shells until the sun began to set, another spectacle that I will never forget. It was a fantastic day capped off with the most spectacular beach I had ever experienced.
We got back to our place to watch a couple local boys lassoing a donkey and riding him down the beach, some fun dinner time entertainment.
Friday
I really wanted everyone to experience something truly unique to the island, so I booked an Exclusive Excursions Boat trip to Round Cay and Gibbs cay for snorkeling and a chance to swim with Rays. It took a bit of convincing to ensure everyone felt it was safe, and that the Steve Irwin incident was not typical of encounters with these graceful creatures.
The departure location is down on Government beach near the Cruise Ship terminal. We got there a little early so we could check out the beach before going on our trip.The sand and water at this beach are just lovely, with large fish swimming around us, but it's going to get pretty busy with 2 cruise ships arriving shortly.
We checked in and boarded our boat with our crew, Captain JJ and Derek.
Along the way our captain dove overboard, and free diving up to 30 feet, collected a bunch of Conch shells for later in the day.
Shortly after, we arrived at Circle Cay, and a nice spot to do some snorkeling.The waters here were warm and clear, and a great assortment of fish to see. Heather was still a little nervous and chose to be our photographer.
Our last stop was at Gibb's Cay, a nice sandy beach, and a known hang out for Sting Rays.
Captain JJ gently corraled a large ray he affectionately called Rebecca, and gave anyone that dared a chance to touch him, and try to corral her themselves.
It took Captain JJ starting a chant of "Heather... Heather..." but he convinced her to
come and see Rebecca up close,
and very personal.
Captain JJ gave us a Conch demonstration, showing us how they remove the meat from the shell and prep it for eating, along with the removal of a small clear spaghetti looking noodle called the pistol.....if you eat that, raw, apparently your girlfriend will be happier...if you get my drift. JJ convinced Nathan to eat one. Once the meat was all removed, Derek made us all a nice Conch Ceviche salad.
Then it was time to re-board the boat, and all that was left was to share some Rum Punch on the way back, everyone got a small plastic glass, but I had my Yeti, so Derek topped that up. For anybody that wanted refills, Derek happily obliged, and I wanted to make sure I got my moneys worth.
Once back on shore, JJ told us he knows where we can get a $12 authentic meal, and had us follow him in our golf cart to a true local restaurant. The restaurant wasn't open yet, so he took us into the bar and bought Heather a shot. What a great ending to a fun excursion.
Since the kitchen wasn't open yet, we headed back to the cruise ship center and had dinner at Margaritaville.
We got back just in time, as with the Cruise Ships leaving, everything shuts down. We ordered a round of various Margaritas, and I opted for for a cheeseburger in paradise with a side of mosquitoes, so many damn mosquitoes.
Saturday
It was our last full day on Grand Turk, and based on some research and advise from the locals, today we were on a Flamingo hunt. We took an island random road route and went past all the salinas and freshwater holes, no flamingoes.
We tried to drive to the bird observatory but the road was flooded. So we waded through the waters and walked… still no flamingos.
As we are walking back to the golf cart, we spot a water spout coming down from the clouds... so I floor it and we race at 10 MPH down island away from it. We are all watching as it slowly dissipates and goes away. It could have been all Wizard of Oz for us.
We checked a last couple of places where flamingoes have been seen in the past, but no luck. At least we saw some cool things and lots of other birds.
We stopped at the Taco Bar for lunch, it was very good but it took forever, so we only had a little swimming time at sunset.
ominous views from the Taco Bar
The place where we are staying has a giant pail out front for the donkeys and the dogs, we kept refilling it all week, and the donkeys appreciated it. Donkeys out front, Dogs in the back... at least Shelly was starting to smell a little better.
Heather - After a long day of unsuccessful flamingo hunting and dodging
funnel clouds, it was time to enjoy our last sunset swim on Grand Turk. Or so I
thought, until we were met with an impromptu donkey petting zoo right outside our
front gate!
Donkeys could be seen wandering the island in just about every direction you
looked, though never were they bold enough to come around for some head scratches, of
course until our last day. Which was probably for the best, or else we would’ve
been returning home with donkeys in our suitcases. I’ve never seen a donkey so
eager for ear rubs, but there’s a first for everything. It reminded me of our
pups we left at home for the trip!
Annika and I stood there for at least 20 minutes before our resident pot-cake, who
we named Shelly, showed up to the party wanting some pets of her own, which of course
I happily obliged. I couldn’t picture a more fitting end to our time on Grand
Turk, Shelly and our donkey friends were the perfect farewell for an unforgettable
week.
Leave no pot-cake (or donkey!) behind!
Our last night in Grand Turk and we had a reservation at the Bird Cage Bar & Grille
in the Osprey Hotel for BBQ night,
it did not disappoint!
Everybody else ordered fish, but I saw the Lobster option came in 3 price ranges, I chose the medium one, and it was huge, and it was delicious... maybe the best lobster I have ever had. We coouldn't decide on desert, so we ordered all 3 and shared them, good choice! Before we left I had to go tell the chef how amazing his lobster was, and thanked him.
We also made sure to test out the other Turk's Head Brewery selections.
After an amazing BBQ at the Osprey Hotel, we headed back to our place to pack after some quality donkey time.
Sunday
We woke up to another beautiful day, and gathered our stuff for Jack Daniels to pick us up for our flight back to Provo
for this flight, Nathan got to be co-pilot... I had to remind him to take pictures as I think he was in awe for most of the flight.
Grand Turk is a very special island, and this trip back reminds me why sometimes it is ok to go to the same place twice.
Next stop...Providenciales